BY BILL MELVIN
1. Take your time. Your opponent wants you to move quickly. She also wants you to drop your queen. Take your time and find a strong move.
2. Don't resign! I've never seen anyone win a game by resigning. On the other hand, I've seen hundreds of stalemates when huge armies couldn't finish off a lone king. Are you positive that your opponent can win the position on the board? If not, then play on!
3. Practice playing with a clock. Most scholastic chess players think they know how to play with a clock. It is not uncommon for one or both players to completely forget about the game at hand when a clock is put on the game. Often, both players will make random looking moves while they are both fixated on the clock. Many of these games are completed within two minutes after a short series of horrible moves on both sides. Practicing with a clock helps you to concentrate on the board position more than the seconds remaining.
4. Don't "think" with your hand. All large tournaments use the "touch move" rule. If you touch a piece, you must move or capture that piece if at all possible. Players will often pick up a piece while still considering their move. Oftentimes, they will notice their opponent's threat after touching a piece. Ooops! The correct process for making a move is simple: a) think about and decide your move, b) make the move. Never start b) until you are finished with a).
5. Develop your pieces. The "point counts" for chess pieces are all wrong. A knight is only worth 3 "points" if it is developed. The same goes for the other pieces. Try to move each piece just one time at the beginning of the game. Try not to move pawns other than your two center pawns unless you have a good reason. Falling behind in development can easily cost the game.
6. Watch out for your opponent's threats. Your opponent's last move just threatened something. You can ignore it, but he just threatened something. I know you are anxious to threaten something yourself, but he just moved and already threatened something. His threat may be more important than your threat. If you threaten mate in one move, you still lose if he just threatened mate in one move and you didn't meet this threat. While some of your opponent's threats may not be worthy of a response, more games are lost by ignored one move threats than any other way.
7. Never play a move without thinking. Your opponent just dropped her queen. If she's a good actor, she even looks hesitant as if she would like to take the move back. You have the impression that she will resign as soon as you take her queen. Without thinking, you reach for the queen. Stop! The queen will still be there in a couple minutes. If this is a trap, you could lose the game by capturing the queen. Try to determine whether your opponent really dropped her queen or if she is setting a trap. Always be at least a little suspicious of a free queen.
8. Make even trades when ahead. As pieces get traded, material advantages tend to increase in importance. Simply making even trades should eventually lead to a situation where more material can be won. Eventually, a pawn can be queened and checkmate given. Don't make yourself win the same game twice. A piece up endgame is better than an unsound attack.
9. Learn basic checkmates. You can't win if you can't checkmate. A king and queen can only checkmate a lone king if the king helps out. A king and rook can checkmate a lone king by driving it to the edge of the board and making a waiting move at the right time to force the opposing king to walk into a one move checkmate. It is essential to understand the winning method in these positions. Most winning positions can be won by queening a pawn and then performing the basic king and queen checkmate.
10. Don't get discouraged. No matter how new to chess you are, everyone who ever got good at chess was at your level at one point in time. You improve more in the games you lose than in the games you win. Keep a healthy attitude and eventual mastery of the game of chess can be yours.
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